Since the release of the 3800 series last year, we've been
waiting for AMD to introduce both the lower and upper end of their product
line. The Radeon HD 3870 and HD 3850 are good values, and today we see the low
end of the market get a much needed update. We still have to wait a short while
to talk about new high end hardware, but hopefully AMD will be able to pull out
something that puts them back in competition there.

While the lack of attention to the high end from AMD might
not impact most graphics hardware buyers directly, the high end market does
represent high margins and the battle between NVIDIA and AMD for leadership can
be quite entertaining to watch at times. On top of that, high end hardware
enables engine developers to test techniques and ideas on what will inevitably
be future low end hardware. We really hope AMD gets back in the game soon for
the sake of advancing the industry.

For now, we don't have low end hardware so we can't do any
performance comparisons right now. AMD has promised a very hard launch, so the
delay between now and when we will see a performance review should be
relatively short. In the meantime we'll take a look at the hardware specs and
new technologies that are part of the 3600 and 3400 series parts.

The Hardwdare

The basic architecture of the 3600 and 3400 series isn't any
different from the 3800 series. All cards support DX 10.1, UVD, PCIe 2.0, and
is fabbed using a 55nm process. The specific features of each card are as
follows:

The new parts are all slated to be sub $100, and the lowest
end option is set at $50. This high volume market is key because it defines
base line add-in graphics performance going forward. For DX 10.1 compliant
cards, these are the base line, and when developers start targeting that as a
minimum spec these cards will need to be considered.

None of these cards require external power, as they all come
in at under the 75W available from the motherboard. The low end 3450 can be
built with passive cooling, but all the other options require some sort of
active cooling. These should also make good HTPC cards, as they support full HD
resolution and all UVD features. The 3470 is needed for upscaling to the highest
resolutions, but for a 1080p television the 3450 should be alright. It does
seem a bit lopsided to pair a 2560x1600 monitor with a sub $100 video card
anyway. We will certainly test all this out when we get the chance.

We can see from the hardware specs that these new cards will
outpace current offerings from AMD at the same price points. This should be a
nice change from the recent trend of updating a lineup without offering any
real performance incentive over older hardware in the low end and midrange
arenas. AMD is reporting some very nice looking improvements, but we'd rather
wait until we run our own numbers to talk about what to expect.

In addition to the hardware specs above, these new parts do
introduce some new technologies. Both the 3600 and 3400 lineup support DisplayPort
with the first on silicon implementation in the industry. The 3400 series also
supports Hybrid Graphics which combines the power of on-board and add-in
graphics to increase the potential graphics power for cheap hardware.

DisplayPort and Hybrid Graphics

DisplayPort is basically a next step from DVI. HDMI has
definitely emerged as the next connection standard in CE devices, but is not
suited to the evolving needs of the PC market. The underlying design of
DisplayPort is an extensible micro-packet based communication method with an
auxiliary channel that will allow displays to more highly integrate with the
PCs to which they are connected.

Daisy chaining devices is supported, which could allow
multiple monitors to be plugged into the same computer to replicate the
display. Future versions of DisplayPort will even support things like multiple
video streams over a single physical connection. Some of the other cool
features that current graphics cards might not take advantage of are the
ability to send 16 bit per component data over the cable. Quad HD resolutions
are also in the works while resolutions of 2560x1600 are supported currently.

While AMD's adoption leads a real need for it, having the
ability to support DisplayPort in a market that plans on moving in that
direction is a logical step. We should see adapters to single-link DVI and HDMI
available, whereas converters would be needed for dual-link DVI and analog VGA.
Connector change is always difficult, and hopefully the move to DisplayPort
will be the last in a while and we can move away from the HD-15 and multitude
of different DVI connectors once and for all. Of course, at this point, card
venders will still need to choose to put DisplayPort connectors on their boards.

The lower end 3400 line will support Hybrid Graphics. This
essentially allows AMD on-board and add-in cards to work together to render
graphics. During 2D or low power operation, the on-board graphics will be used.
When more horsepower is needed, the Radeon HD 3450 or 3470 will be able to work
together with the on-board graphics chip to render the scene faster. This means
owners of AMD boards with built in graphics will get more for their money when
the buy a cheap graphics card.

While two times garbage is just more trash, we'll have to
test this out ourselves to see if it enables the use of any more features,
higher resolutions, or significantly smoother framerates. We wouldn't expect
miracles, but if this offers a tangible benefit to consumers with low end
hardware it's certainly a good thing.

AMD touts Hybrid Graphics as also offering lower power,
quieter operation, and four monitor support in addition to the potential for faster
graphics on low end systems. I don't know that we'll be recommending this
solution for gamers, but it might be nice of an HTPC user who wants quiet
operation, good video playback, and the potential to play a few games here and
there.

Final Words

We wish we could have had hardware available for this
launch. We always have to work a little harder to get our hands on lower end
and value products, as companies would rather people all see how good their
fastest parts run. But we will do our best to get some numbers sooner rather
than later.

This launch isn't revolutionary, as it's really just AMD
bringing their 3000 series down to the lower end. Hybrid Graphics could be an
interesting feature, but we'll have to test it before we can find out if it's
more marketing than magic.

Our desire to see ever increasing performance in high volume
graphics markets generally exceeds what we are offered, and even though there
is competition between NVIDIA and AMD, neither company wants to create too
large a gap between their low end add-in cards and integrated graphics. But no
matter what we get, at least we will see some sort of performance improvement
over what is currently on the market.

Stay tuned, as the next few weeks promise some interesting
developments. We'll be getting together some data on these low end AMD parts as
well as some coverage of higher end hardware.